In this age where teachers are being deluged with the latest HIGH TECH gadgets, curmudgeon that I am, I want to make a LOW TECH point. A LOW TECH solution paying rich dividends. Here’s the plan.
When I was in college the HIGHLIGHTER came of age. Everything that needed emphasized was highlighted with very bright YELLOW markers. This was followed by PINK highlighters, then BLUE highlighters, and the colors kept coming.
After teaching for several years I began using highlighters instead of my written notations that I put in the music. Instead of writing LEGATO SLURS — I began to highlight the slurs. Instead of notating to the student to OBSERVE STACCATO — I began to highlight the staccato, often with a bright neon YELLOW highlighter. Since accents create an even “brighter” sound than staccatos I often would choose a even different color for them.
Dynamics were treated the same way. Sometimes I would use BLUE highlighting all the soft dynamic levels – YELLOW was used to highlight the loud levels; then since the mezzo markings were a compromise between loud and soft I combined my BLUE and YELLOW highlighter to create GREEN.
The pedagogical point about this method of teaching is that COLOR IS REPRESENTATIONAL and students very quickly grasp the relationship of color to the musical task. WORDS do not do this nearly as effectively.
Often times, the internal logic of a piece will demand a different color scheme. I’ll mention an example of this in the little piece below from the popular Piano Advertures series.
Here’s an example of how this looks in practice.
In this example I used ORANGE for the legato slurs simply because a Crawling Spider is evocative of Halloween.
This particular student was holding the last note of each slur as a half note so it was necessary to highlight the quarter rest to remind the student that this rest was to be observed.
Notice how each dynamic level raises to a slightly higher level — mp to mf to f. I didn’t do it with this student, but I sometimes will draw a thin line with my highlighter to each subsequent dynamic level to demonstrate the “growth of sound” wanted by the composer or arranger. Again, the HIGHLIGHTER represents this very clearly in the score, especially if you explain this point as you do the highlighting. And also again, using color in this manner makes it easier for the student to remember the musical task that’s required of them.
On a more advanced level color can also be used as a very helpful teaching tool. This is an intermediate piece of Bela Bartok – The Handsome Rooster.
The Handsome Rooster uses three themes. Each theme is highlighted with a different color. Theme 1 is yellow. Theme 2 is green. Theme 3 is pink.
This makes the eyes quickly focus on where each theme is located in the composition. Let’s examine how using color helps a student focus using Theme 1. We can easily notice that Theme 1 is varied is some significant way with each repetition. The first time Theme 1 is treated in 2 part writing. When I mention to the students the direct imitation of Theme 1 in the second repetition, the students grasp it much better than if I would have done it without the highlighting. Not only does color help students focus IN on particular items it also helps them to focus OUT of the other sections. When students see the slight variations with each repetition, each in its own color, the student can better conceptualize the “growth” of the piece through its repetitions. Then in the third repetition of Theme 1 we notice a standard homophonic treatment with the theme accompanied by chords. Without using the highlighting this all remains rather abstract to the student. I think you’ll be amazed as to how much better your student grasps concepts using this LOW TECH method of instruction.
There are numerous ways of using highlighters to teach pedagogical concepts. One final example. We often teach the concept of a step to aid a student in reading music with greater facility. It’s even easier if we apply the “training wheels” of highlighting all the step movement in a few compositions until the students fully grasp the concept. This little exercise also reveals to a student how much step movement is found in musical compositions. This little revelation makes the whole process of learning music notation less daunting, giving the student the confidence that reading music is not as difficult as they may have initially imagined. When students grasp this concept then counting in a steady beat is much easier for the student because you have helped remove the more formidable task of reading the highs and lows.
One of my students mentioned an experience she had at her Federation performance where the judge commented that her music was the most colorful she had ever seen. I also think that all that color was a major reason the student brought home a superior rating. The musical tasks simply jump off the page, making success easier.
I think you will find this very inexpensive LOW TECH solution to teaching piano a very effective tool in your pedagogical palette.
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The first piece, ‘The Crawling Spider,’ is my daughter’s, and I can attest to the success of the highlighter in having her be more aware of the entire piece of music as it is written – not simply the notes. Thanks, Mr. Severino!
Dan, I love your examples.
I struggle for order in my teaching
(and in life) and I wonder how you remember what colors you use for each concept–or does it vary according to the situation? I think I would need to keep a chart within view in order to remember what my system is!
Alice says: “I wonder how you remember what colors you use for each concept–or does it vary according to the situation?”
To a large extend this is a learning by doing activity. I really have no “fixed rule”. Each piece provides its own color scheme. My main rule is to be consistent within each composition the student is learning. For example, I may use yellow for staccato notes in a composition but to distinguish the difference to accents I may want to use orange. Students can immediately see yellow highlighting staccato and orange highlighting accents. To VISUALLY see this is glorious color makes it much easier for the student to see, and therefore comprehend than a haphazard marking or unorganized circling using a pencil one week and a red pen the next.
Sonata allegro form provides a different scheme. First, simple use different colors for each major section; the exposition, the development and the recapitulation. Theme one and theme two could be marked with a particular color that could be consistent with the repetition of these themes in the recapitulation. Perhaps in the development motifs could be colored in the colors chosen for theme one and theme two. Color coding in this manner really helps to organize a student’s conception of sonata allegro form in a way that will jump off the page.
The important thing is to have an internal color logic for each composition.
Thanks for a great post. I’ve used a little bit of colour coding in my teaching, but I’ll be incorporating highlighting lots of highlighting from now on!
Dan, do you have any favorite brands of highlighters?
Some seem to last longer than others; have you found that to be the case?
Alice,
Thanks for the question. I do not really have a favorite brand. I just go to my local office supply and buy a multi-color pack of highlighters. I get a yellow, a pink, a blue, a green, an orange and a purple. Since yellow is my “default” color, I buy an extra supply of yellow. With a class of @50 students I may go through a couple yellows in a year. I mostly just refresh the others with a fresh set. I’ve been working with my present set for about 2 years and will probably just begin fresh at the beginning of the fall term. Hope that helps.
Thanks, Dan!
Do kids every find all the vivid colors distracting?
Cecilly, I can honestly say that not even one of my students has said the color highlighters I’ve used has been distracting. I CAN say that I try to be “neat” about my highlighting and just don’t “smear” the highlighter over their music. REMEMBER: Highlighting is a way to “organizing” the music page for the student, so it draws attention to “clarifying” the musical score for them.
TO ADDRESS YOUR POINT – I can say that I have seen some highlighters that are TOO DARK. Highlighters should “highlight” the notes where they “stand out”; if the color is too dark the effect will be the opposite and “obscure” the students ability to actually see what’s on the music page. So, go for colors that are not too dark.
Thanks for your interest in the article.
[…] In this age where teachers are being deluged with the latest HIGH TECH gadgets, curmudgeon that I am, I want to make a LOW TECH point. A LOW TECH solution paying rich dividends. Here's the plan. When I was in college the HIGHLIGHTER came of age. Everything that needed emphasized was highlighted with very bright YELLOW markers. This was followed by PINK highlighters, then BLUE highlighters, and the colors kept coming. After teaching for severa … Read More […]
Thank you for your wonderful low tech suggestion. I have not purchased highlighter tape yet, but I want to because I saw another teacher recommend it.
Also, I heard that there are erasable highlighters but I have not been able to find them. Maybe they didn’t work and are no longer available.
http://www.highlightertapes.com/price.html
Thanks for your comment D’Ann. Truly I’ve been so pleased with using regular highlighters that I have not used highlighter tape and I’ve never seen the erasable highlighters at either Office Max or Staples where I do my office supply purchasing. I would think the highlighter tape would have limitations that I personally wouldn’t want. For example – I’m always highlighting staccato dots and I cannot see this being a simple process with highlighter tape or very practical. It would be nice to have something not permanent but my college scores mean something to be “because of” the notations all over the page. Regardless, I hope your adventure into highlight will bring a new dimension to you and your students.
I have my students highlight certain aspects of their music during their lessons. This seems to help them remember if they do it rather than I. Highlight tape works wonders too and you can reuse and move it making it perfect for recital music.
Reading this thread a couple years after it was originally posted reminds me that this must have been when I started my now standard practice of highlighting all f, mf, ff markings in pink, and all p, pp, mp in blue. My students are used to this now. Also, with one older lady who doesn’t read well and doesn’t pay close attention to what I say (she is too busy trying to play by ear while I am talking!), I’ve resorted to using mostly leadsheets in the key of C, and I highlight all C chords in yellow, F chords in blue, and G7 in pink–this has made music accessible to her in a way that it was not before. Thanks, Dan, for the original ideas!